Tim Blair

Tim Blair
–,
Monday,
November,
26,
2012,(6:58am)

A while ago I got into an argument with a member of Sydney’s rich white Labor community. He’d decided that something I’d written about Islam was racist.

Trouble was, he couldn’t precisely identity what particular race I’d offended. Islam isn’t a race. You can test this at home by converting to the faith, which is substantially simpler than converting to black or Asian or white. Even David Hicks, no genius, managed his Islamic conversion easily enough.

My opponent ended up proposing a definition of race based more on religion, culture and background than on skin colour or any other genetic factors.

By those terms, then, he was satisfied about my racism. But by the same terms, any critic of Catholicism or Buddhism would also be racist. To say nothing of certain Sydney protesters who earlier this year marched through the city holding signs that read: “Behead all those who insult the prophet.” They might be racist against everybody who isn’t Islamic.

Similarly violent intimidation emerged this week in YouTube video of Melbourne residents viciously abusing European women during a suburban bus ride. Profane fury was apparently prompted by the women singing in their native French. Memo to Plastic Bertrand: don’t book any Frankston gigs.

Tim Blair
–,
Monday,
November,
26,
2012,(6:27am)

Until the late 1980s, Melbourne’s major retailers all closed at 1pm on Saturdays. The push by retailers to open Saturday afternoons and all day on Sundays only succeeded after they acknowledged the inevitable disruption to family and social life through the payment of penalties. A generation later they want to overturn them, even though the disruption is as great as ever.

This is a fact still acknowledged in other countries. The former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, failed in a bid to introduce Sunday trading in France as recently as 2010. It means most Paris shops still only open on five Sundays a year – to allow more, said opponents, would destroy family life, ‘’the soul of France’’.

Bruce Guthrie is a former editor of the Sunday Age and a current columnist for the Sunday Age. Sold on Sundays.

So it’s going to come down to Mr Blewitt’s word against me. Who is he? He’s a man who has publicly said he was involved in fraud. He is a man who has sought immunity from prosecution. He has fled Indonesia to avoid a police interview in relation to land fraud, although he denies wrongdoing in the case. He says he owes money on another land deal. He admits to using the services of prostitutes in Asia. He has published lewd and degrading comments and accompanying photographs of young women on his Facebook page. According to people know him, he has been described as a complete imbecile, an idiot, a stooge, a sexist pig, a liar and his sister has said he’s a crook and rotten to his core. His word against mine – make your mind up.

Tim Blair
–,
Monday,
November,
26,
2012,(6:10am)

The NSW Crime Commission is pushing for a new law that will ban suspected criminals from driving high-powered cars. Under the proposed law, suspects might be specifically banned from driving Lamborghinis, Ferraris and the like.

This purpose of the anti-Lambo law is to both remove the opportunity for dodgy types to enjoy their scofflaw lifestyles and also to drain some glamour from the criminal classes. It’s a good start, but an obvious next step is called for. If crims can’t drive anything fast and fancy, what cars will they be allowed to drive?